1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a broadcasting signal receiver and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a broadcasting signal receiver and a control method thereof, which selects a particular channel when a plurality of analogous channels exist.
2. Description of the Related Art
Terrestrial broadcasting is now provided in the form of analog broadcasting and digital broadcasting. Therefore, the same contents can be transmitted through both the analog and digital broadcasting forms. For example, contents of a broadcasting network can be shown through an analog channel number of 7 and a digital channel number of 7-1. When a user selects a numeral key of ‘7’ using a remote controller, it is unclear which one of the two channels is to be tuned and displayed.
In a related art television (TV), a method of selecting a channel will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a method of selecting a channel among analogous channels in the related art.
At operation 100 when a user selects a certain channel, e.g., a channel number of 11 through a remote controller, at operation 101 the TV compares the contents of a digital channel number of 11-1 with the contents of an analog channel number of 11. At this time, in the case where only one of an analog or digital channel exists corresponding to the selected channel, the existing channel is immediately tuned and displayed.
At operation 102, the TV determines whether the contents of two channels are identical on the basis of program information such as a program name, a program time and the like. In the case where the two channels differ in their contents, at operation 103 the TV displays information about the contents of each channel option through an on screen display (OSD), thereby showing a user the program information corresponding to the currently selected channel. Then, a user can select a desired channel between the analog and digital channels by manipulating a key provided in the remote controller at operation 104. According to the selection of a user, the TV is tuned to the selected channel and displays the contents of the tuned channel on its screen at operation 105.
On the other hand, in the case where the contents of the digital and analog channels are identical, the TV displays the contents of the digital channel at operation 106. Herein, the TV processes in consideration of the picture qualities of the digital channel and the analog channel.
However, the related art TV is set to unconditionally select the digital channel among analogous channels in the case where the contents of the analogous channels are identical. Thus, when the digital channel shows no image because the digital channel has a weak broadcasting signal or no broadcasting signal, it is impossible to change the digital channel into the analog channel in spite of repeated selection of the desired channel number even though the analog channel can show a user the corresponding broadcast.
Further, there are various broadcasting modes such as a cable broadcasting mode, or a satellite broadcasting mode, in addition to the analog terrestrial broadcasting mode and the digital terrestrial broadcasting mode. However, the conventional TV does not consider the cable broadcasting and the satellite broadcasting mode instead of the terrestrial broadcasting with regard to the analogous channels. Therefore, even when the identical content is retransmitted though the same channel in the cable broadcasting or the satellite broadcasting, a problem relating to the priority of the channel selection arises.